


another heart has made the trade

by havisham



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 14:28:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10573188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: In another universe, the countdown lapses and Bruce gets there in time.





	

It’s another universe and Bruce gets there in time. Sheila had done something -- had knocked the bomb aside, and it had delayed things enough --

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Bruce --” Jason babbles, his voice barely above a whisper. 

Bruce just shook his head. “You did well, Robin.” 

And Jason relaxes. Just a little. 

*

It’s a universe where Jason Todd, age fifteen, doesn’t die.

*

He doesn’t die, but his life is never the same. His recovery is slow and painful and incomplete. He can’t be Robin again, but he doesn’t stop being a hero.

Jason focuses on other stuff: getting better, finishing school, and shit, maybe college? He never thought he’d make it, but here he is, able to go anywhere in the world, though he decides to stick closer to home.

(He doesn’t exactly spend the whole four years in New York bothering Dick and trying to get Donna Troy to be his friend – but it’s a close thing.) 

After all, he’s a Bat so of course he disappears from time to time and comes back with weird but useful skills.

His relationship with Bruce seems irreparably broken, but Jason grows closer with Babs, especially after she’s shot and he becomes the hardware guy for Oracle. They find different ways to defend Gotham.

(Babs is a better boss than Bruce, but some ways she’s tougher one too. She never gives way to self-pity and never lets Jason do it either.)

*

Jason’s still an asshole though and he manifestly does not like Tim, does not like Tim replacing him, does not like that Bruce and Dick seems to love Tim so quickly. He does not like Tim making Robin so completely his own.

But they have to work together, sometimes, and eventually they find a grudging kind of respect for each other. But Jason still doesn’t like Tim up until the moment he gets a look at Tim’s Robin-memorabilia collection and sees that he’s as much Tim’s idol as Dick ever was.

And then things are … weird, after that, but good-weird, not bad-weird. Jason stops trolling Tim over the comms as much, and slips him some useful information from time to time.

*

Jason _loves_ Cass.

She’s the sister he could have had. Should have had. They understand each other better than the other Bats and Birds do, they have the same kind of darkness inside them that they try so hard to defeat.

*

It’s hard, but Jason is happy. As happy as a guy like Jason can be.

Which is why it’s so fucked up when something in reality breaks and Jason comes face-to-face with the newly resurrected and raging Red Hood, who is and is not him. He’s someone who made the trade and as soon as they realize what’s happening –

*

Jason is back in that warehouse in Ethiopia. He’s fifteen again. A clock is ticking down and his lungs are filling up with blood.

Bruce won’t come in time.


End file.
